new york city is a city of 8 million people, but millions come into new york city every day by road or by rail. that's the kind of work that needs to be done just to get our city up and running again. i won't give much more detail, he rely on the testimony that's been given previously and the testimony that is to come. but i just want to emphasize for our colleagues, the reason why these hearings matter is because the rest of congress, the rest of the senate has not necessarily been to new york since the storm. they haven't seen the devastation in these communities. they have not seen the destruction caused to so many families so many businesses. you know, we've seen storms before. we've seen storms across the country. we've seen wildfires, tornados. we saw what happened with hurricane katrina. so we know what suffering looks like. and i can tell yo new york has never suffered on this level because of a natur disaster, ever. so to have the abity and wherewithal to bin to rebuild will mean that we will rely on the federal government. so i wanted to thank you for holding this heari. i wa